“I focus on treating the "person" rather than the "illness" and give special consideration to the person's spiritual, cultural, and personal beliefs regarding health, illness, and the psyche.”
What was your path to becoming a therapist?
My path began twenty-four years ago as a combat medic in the US Army. This led to a nursing career in intensive care and critical care medicine where I treated those living with chronic illness, such as diabetes, heart failure, and renal failure as well as oncological and HIV-related complications. While my primary role was gratifying, I was not satisfied by the treatment outcomes and lack of preventive measures that would improve overall prognosis and quality of life. I realized that the common denominator among those with the poorest health outcomes was the prevalence of untreated behavioral health issues. As a result, I redirected my focus and specialized in adult psychiatry and substance use disorders. I have been working for the past sixteen years with ambulatory chronically ill clients in a multidisciplinary setting consisting of primary care practitioners, infectious disease specialists, social services, dentists, OB-GYN providers, and behavioral health therapists.
What should someone know about working with you?
I focus on treating the "person" rather than the "illness" and give special consideration to the person's spiritual, cultural, and personal beliefs regarding health, illness, and the psyche. Using a biopsychosocial model, symptomatology will be assessed to indicate the appropriate diagnosis and develop a treatment plan. Our treatment plan is a client-provider collaborative agreement that incorporates a functional medicine approach with integrated psychotherapy modalities tailor-made to the individual's needs and goals.
What do you do to continue learning and building competencies as a provider?
I strongly believe in the practice of ongoing and never-ending continuing education as well as networking through national and global psychopharmacology conferences and functional medicine consortiums.
What are you most excited about within the evolving mental health landscape?
I have a longstanding affinity for the evolving study of psychoneuroimmunoendocrinology (otherwise known as the "general adaptation syndrome"). I am intrigued by the role of stress on the neural, immune, and hormonal responses in the pursuit of halting the progression of chronic illness. I am extremely enthused by the implications of this study on the aging process and the prospect of improving the quality of life across the lifespan.
“Our treatment plan is a client-provider collaborative agreement that incorporates a functional medicine approach with integrated psychotherapy modalities tailor-made to the individual's needs and goals.”